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Making a gift to the National Network for Oral Health Access is one of the easiest ways to positively impact our work, enhance our services, and help our community strengthen and increase access to oral health services. NNOHA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Your contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
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NNOHA is the largest group of safety-net oral health practitioners in the country, and our members all share a commitment to increasing access to quality oral health care for underserved populations. NNOHA is committed to providing the highest quality resources and support designed to meet the unique needs of our members and their programs.
HIV is no longer a death sentence and widely considered a chronic, manageable disease. Rapid HIV diagnosis and treatment are needed to ensure declines in HIV incidence. With advances in prevention (i.e., pre-exposure prophylaxis) and biomedical science (i.e., undetectable = untransmittable), we now have the tools to end the epidemic. State and federal government agencies are using these tools and data to establish ending the epidemic strategic plans with the goal of addressing the public health crisis of HIV.
Surveillance data, however, suggests that 15% of people living with HIV in the United States are unaware of their HIV infection and remain at risk of transmitting HIV infection. Dentists and dental hygienists were among the first to recognize oral manifestations in people living with HIV in the early days of the epidemic and may still have a role in helping to identify new cases by administering rapid HIV testing in the dental setting. Administering chair-side screenings in the dental setting may help improve health outcomes, address health inequalities, and improve the quality of life of persons at risk for and living with HIV.
HIV and Oral Health: An Update and a Refocus
